Prabhu's Budget Fails To Impress Former Rail Ministers

Be it Dinesh Trivedi, Lalu Yadav, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar or West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, these four former railway ministers have given a big thumbs down to the rail budget presented on February 25 by the current railway minister Suresh Prabhu.

Trivedi termed Prabhu's budget speech as an "illusion" while Nitish Kumar dismissed as one having "no concrete proposals" to take railways forward. He said Prabhu's budget "lacked focus". RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav accused the Centre of cheating the poor and derailing the crucial sector.

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar said that people were disappointed by the Railway Budget 2016-17 as it lacked vision.”People across the country are disappointed by the rail budget," the former railway minister told the media in Patna.

Dismissing the Railway Budget by Prabhu as a "big zero", the Trinamool Congress said there was "nothing new" in the document.

"This government has misled the nation through this budget which has neither any vision nor any direction," the Trivedi, a Trinamool Congress Parliamentarian said.

Former Bihar CM and former railway minister Lalu Yadav said the Indian Railways has seen a rise in the expenditure and fall in income. "The railway was only sector, which acted as a lifeline for all and the Modi Government has derailed railway,” Lalu told reporters.

But the Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter to congratulate Prabhu. He tweeted that the Budget illustrated the NDA government’s commitment to "serving the poor." Hailing it as being "futuristic and visionary", union minister Prakash Javadekar said it gives due importance to the poor and reflects Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of making India strong.

Opposition Slams Rail Budget
The opposition on Thursday attacked the first full-fledged Railway budget of the BJP-led NDA government saying it lacked vision and road map to execute the "nice ideas it is full of".

Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge who too held the post of railways in the past, slammed the budget for lacking in substance and merely "weaving dreams".

"It's a nicely-worded budget speech. But there is no vision as to how he is going to achieve goals. The minister says he will get into PPP model, BoT agreements, etc. If you depend on others, you are unlikely to meet your targets," Kharge said.

Senior BJD leader Tathagata Satpathy also attacked the Railway budget, calling it hollow and disappointing. He said he would give only 2 out 10 points to it.

"It's completely hollow. He (Prabhu) spoke of an idea but that idea has not been enunciated, meaning not much thought has gone behind it," he told PTI. Kharge also criticised Prabhu's decision to not announce new trains, saying development is not static like stagnant water.

Senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily was critical of the rail budget saying it was just a vision document.

"There is no budget, it is only a vision document of 2013. Even the statement of accounts he said it is in the annexure. That should be the core theme of the budget. Then where is the budget. I think the budget has melted away in the aspiration of the minister," Moily said adding that according to him the budget scores zero marks out of ten.

The CPI(M) said the Railway budget 2015-16 was "high on hyperbole but low on content" and will not bring the promised good days for the poor.

The central trade unions also described the railway budget as "utterly regressive" and said the fright hike will result in increase of prices of all essential commodities. CPI(M) said that the budgetary allocations for extending railways to backward and far flung areas and greater access for the poorer sections are totally "inadequate".

"There are 4.6 crore less originating passengers. The passenger earnings were short by Rs 968 crore proving earlier fare hikes to be counterproductive. Given this, there should not be any euphoria over passenger fares not being raised," the party said. "The Rail Budget for the year 2015-16 was high on hyperbole but low on content. In fact, it has spelt out certain intentions with scarce factual details to translate these ideas into reality," it said.

Markets Fall On Rail Budget Day
The BSE closed 113 points down making it the fourth consecutive occasion when the market declined on the day of Rail Budget. In the past three instances - one of which includes the last year railway budget by Suresh Prabhu (markets had closed 261 points down), before than on July 08, 2014 too it had closed 518 points in the red when Sadanad Gowda had presented the railway budget months after the Modi-led NDA government had come to power.

However, the markets had also closed in the red when UPA-II governments Pawan Kumar Bansal had presented the railway budget on February 26, 2013. While welcoming the railway budget, India Inc pointed out that the revenue generation target of Rs 1.84 lakh crore in the Rail Budget 2016-17 could pose a strong challenge to the government.